Safe Housing Canada Project #6528

Help kids with facial differences become leaders

by AboutFace

Project Report | May 25, 2011
A Leap of Faith for Camp Trailblazers

By Andrea Holmes | Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships

Things are really starting to ramp up for Camp Trailblazers 2011! Camps will be held in six provinces across Canada and all but one are now booked.

Did you know that on July 9 there will be people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to raise money for Camp Trailblazers?

This will be the 4th Annual Leap of Faith: All across Canada, brave individuals will get pledeges from friends, family and colleagues and when they raise $1,000 -- they skydive!

For many individuals with facial differences, just leaving the house can feel like a leap of faith and so far there are over 50 individuals that look forward to showing their love by taking a Leap of Faith to show their support.

One of the teams returning this year is team "For Eliana". They are jumping to support and raise awareness for Eliana and all children born with a facial difference. "Eliana was born with Townes Brocks Syndrome, and due to this syndrome she has hemifacial microsomia (no right ear and an underdeveloped lower right jaw). She is our beautiful little girl!" say mom Angela Giddens. To view the teams progress please click here: A Leap for Eliana.

Another team is Dental Choice Edmonton. For so many individuals with facial differences, dental reconstruction is a necessary part of their care. This troop of coworkers have formed one of the largest Leap of Faith teams to support Camp Trailblazers. They have just signed up to participate -- you can watch their progress by clicking here: Choice Edmonton.

To check out the progress of all the other teams and individuals please click here Leap of Faith Progress. Just click on the participants to see how close they are to their targets!

Thank you for your help in sending youths with facial differences across Canada to camp where they will learn life and leaderships skills free from the feeling of being scrutinized because of the way they look. There are over 80,000 youths in Canada living with a facial difference. Last year, 80 kids went to camp, 43% more than the year before. This year, our goal is to send 100 youths to experience the positive changes that Camp Trailblazers helps them to achieve.

Stay tuned for my report after July 9th to let you know how Leap of Faith went and how much closer we are to our target of $64,971!

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this initiative or Camp Trailblazers.

Thank you all for your support! With your help we will meet our goal to send 100 youths to Camp Trailblazers in 2011!

Andrea Holmes
Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships
T: 416-597-2229, x23

Permalink

Feb 17, 2011
Camp Trailblazers: Looking Back at 2010

By Andrea Holmes | Project Leader

Love our hoodies!

Camp Trailblazers wrapped up with resounding success in October of 2010!

There were several big changes to Camp Trailblazers in 2010:

We added a new Alberta camp, bringing us to a total of 6 locations across Canada. We experienced a 43% increase in enrollment this year! The continual growth of this program and the number of returning campers is a clear indication of not only Camp Trailblazers' success, but also the high demand for it. AboutFace is the only organization offering a self esteem building weekend of fun and adventure for teenagers with a variety of facial differences. The truth is; once our members find the courage to go, they keep coming back, year after year.

Also new, were the branded hoodies for all campers! The kids love them -- they are cozy and warm and many continue to wear them proudly when they go home from camp. At camp, it makes them feel like they belong to a team. When they go home, wearing the hoodie reminds them of the experiences they had and the friends they met.
Journals/diaries were introduced to encourage kids to use writing as a process to help "digest" their experiences from the day. The journals help them to learn to express their thoughts and feelings and then to open up to others.

Randy, the Camp Trailblazers Director introduced a writing competition for kids to write about their camp experience. Kids will be kids and for most of them this meant "work" so the response this time around was a little low. Randy plans on introducing the concept at camp next year to engage the kids right then and there. The best thing about the kid's stories is that they can be shared with others who are hesitant "to take the plunge" and go to camp. They will know that others felt the same way -- until they got to camp. And now they can hardly wait to go back! Our winner of the First Camp Trailblazers writing competition was 16 year old Quy! Click on the link below to read Quy's story in his own words.

To wrap up the Camp Trailblazers up-date, I would like to share Camp Director Randy Pielsticker's summary of how camp went this past year:

"One of my favorite activities at camp is our final circle where we go around the entire group and everyone explains their favorite part of camp: The food, the climbing wall, the horses and making new friends are all common answers. But when kids respond with "I just enjoyed spending a weekend without getting bullied or teased", or "this weekend I learned to be proud of my difference", it truly tugs on the heartstrings".

Randy continues, "When a camper is in tears and afraid to get on the bus with a bunch of strangers, then two days later has written a song about camp and stands up at the campfire to sing it, this is when I really know the difference that we are making."

Planning is underway for Camp Trailblazers 2011 with many new and exciting enhancements! Stay tuned!

Camp Trailblazer Director Randy

Up the creek WITH a paddle!

First time horseback riding :)

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.